CATT, CARRIE CHAPMAN SPEECH, ARTICLE, BOOK FILE Speech: "WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT WAR?" WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT WAR? Speech delivered by Carrie Chapman Catt at Hotel Astor December 8, 1936 at meeting of New York City Federation of Women's Clubs The most important problem that has ever confronted the human race, a problem that demands the attention of every man and woman in every nation the wide world over, is: What shall we do about war? This is not a new question. It may be as old as mankind itself. One can imagine a cave man, dressed in skins, carrying a stone hammer as his only weapon, asking another cave man: "What shall we do about war?" and the other replying: " I do not know, but if war isn't stopped, our tribe may be destroyed, other men may occupy our caves, and our beautiful rising civilization will surely perish." Today, every nation has other problems, -- big, difficult, almost insoluble problems, but most of them were caused by war. More, war will not solve any of these problems, but, on the contrary, will certainly bring new varieties of the same vexations again, and perhaps worse ones. Unemployment, disordered financial conditions, disease, crime, instability of society and unrest among peoples always has been and always will be natural outcomes of war. -2- For a thousand years after the establishment of Christianity in Europe, governments were largely controlled by the Church. Whenever a new idea rose, such, for example, as the claim that the earth is round, the high churchmen made a uniform reply. "Impossible. The earth certainly is flat for that has been believed always and by all." In a different form and by different authority, it is still the answer made to every new proposition. War, men say, always has been and therefore always will be. There can be no end to it. Silly talk that, since the world has changed many a belief and forbade many a wrong that once was believed right everywhere and by all. What then, shall we do about war in this 20th Century and in this, our decade? Let us [again] clear the foreground by asking ourselves four preliminary, but very fundamental questions. -3- 1. Can war be stopped? It can; that which has been done, can be done again. For example, not long ago, as time goes, slavery was common the world over. Everyone believed it right and it was said the Bible upheld it. Where is it now? The world changed its mind and improved its morals. Not so long ago, England punished a hundred misdemeanors by beheading the sinners. They sometimes quartered them like apples, Other nations were no better, but heads are safer now, because minds have been changed and morals improved. War is as certain to disappear from the affairs of men, as the sun is sure to rise tomorrow. 2. How may war be stopped? In one way only. When public opinion changes its mind about war and demands that it be abolished from the earth, nations will hasten to agree upon the method. 3. How can public opinion be made to demand the abolition of war? By education and experience only. What is needed now, as before, is improved morals and clearer and more logical thinking. 4. When will war stop? Ah, that is more difficult to answer, but it is not impossible to arrive at a fair estimate. How long do you think this nation usually takes to change its mind about a matter of general welfare? -4- It took thirty years in the United States to change the spelling of a word -labour to labor. There was a committee of publishers and writers behind it and a powerful campaign was conducted. The "u" is still in labour in England. Women Suffrage, a movement still fresh in our minds, is a good example. There was a convention in 1848. One hundred years of agitation lay behind it. Books had been written, newspapers published, lectures given, and much discussion conducted during that century. The leaders had been men and women of the highest quality. Something every remarkable happened at that convention. A platform was written so complete and so perfect that it was never afterwards changed in its main points. The one hundred years had taught the women what they wanted and they were able to write it down and vote its adoption. There was something else remarkable about the woman suffrage movement in this country. The movement began here and it is the only country where votes for women were inevitable from the beginning. Why? Because our Republic was founded upon the voice of a majority of the people. Therefore, the only logical argument for excluding women was the claim that women were not people or, being people, they lacked the qualities which made other people capable as voters and these were, in fact, the two arguments upon which the case was founded at the first and finished at the last. With these two advantages, how long was it from the date when organized women started their campaign to the end? Exactly 72 years or 2 1/2 generations. -10- Still speaking of costs,, there is another side of the shield. When I was a student in the High School, it had only one book- a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. A few wall maps were borrowed by the school needing them from a single set. This was all the equipment the town school system had. I do not forget that at an earlier period, there had been no dictionary. Now such a town school has a library and a librarian where encyclopedias and other reference books and important assignments are given, students of reading in the library. Then, in Iowa, and all over the West, a little school house stood in the center of every four square miles. Many children walked two miles to school and two miles home again. The teacher taught every subject from the alphabet to geometry and Latin. Now those little school houses have gone and in their places are regional schools is splendid buildings in which specialized teachers and State busses carry the children to and from school. I do not know how much more the high school graduate of this day knows than did those of sixty years ago, but I do know much more money in now spent per child on his and her education and that neither parents nor children would like to go back to the school whose only equipment was the Unabridged Dictionary. A now spirit has arisen within the past few years, demanding pensions for the old, pensions for the blind, the crippled, and other dependents and insurance for the unemployed. These humanitarian efforts [*Fragmentary*] [*1935+-*] -13 The submarine was not new, but it had not been used before the Great War and few regarded it as a practical instrument of war until the Germans made it so in 1914. 5,500 ships were sunk by them in the Great War which was a very good beginning. Now every nation not only has submarines, but they have bigger and better ones. Airplanes were new in 1914 and so uncertain, that most military men considered them too insignificant to be necessary to the general equipment for war. All the nations soon, however, had them. At one time I made a serious research in an attempt to learn how many airplanes the chief nations had had in the Great War. I believe that at no one time did any nation have more than one hundred bombing airplanes. Ever since that war came to an end, in 1918, a brisk competitive race in the building of airplanes, capable of war service, has been in progress. In 1931, the League of Nations found that France had 2,375, Great britain 1434, Italy 1507, Japan 1636, the United States 1752; the total of these five nations being about 9,000. Since that date, there has been a still more rapid increase. Italy certainly won her attack upon Ethiopia chiefly by airplanes. The natives were brave fighters with the spear and sword, to which they were accustomed, but bombs from the sky terrified them. Great Britain has just placed an order for 1,500 new planes, more new planes for 1936 than her total in 1931. The statement made by many, that the next war will be fought in the air, seems warranted, and every nation has not a few, but a fleet of airplanes. 15 Poison Gas was a definite new weapon in the last war and every nation is now not only prepared to defend it soldiers with gas masks, but one sees illustrations in the papers of masked horses going through the street with masked drivers on the seat, masked men and women, citizen pedestrians, a masked women's club holding a meeting a masked office man using a telephone. I have seen a picture of masked little girls playing with masked dolls and masked little boys playing with masked dogs. Please do not forget that I am speaking of the costs of war. [So] When a nation [gets] is badly frightened and wants to get ready for war, it must buy a supply of all the things from warships to masks any nation with which it may go to war is provided, and which may be wanted. The more variety in the supply needed means [and more and] that more of the pennies in the national dollar of any land goes into war preparation. [If the war really comes and men are mobilized, outfitted, and marched away, all the dollars of the annual income are exhausted. New taxes upon anything one can suggest are laid and still there are not enough dollars and the nation borrows, borrows, all it can and anywhere it can, and for all this spending posterity has to pay. I have never recovered from the shock that France had not finished paying for her war with Germany of 1870, when she must borrow again in 1914, - 44 years later - to pay for another war with the same nation. There is no dodging or denying the fact that whatever may have been true in the long ago, now no modern national can engage in war without certain financial catastrophe.] 19 What then shall we do about war. Public Opinion must demand its abolition. Is it possible to change that opinion. It is. let me tell you two stories, true ones. One, some of you may remember. In 1917, just about the time we were going into the Great War, Jane Addams made a speech. She had long been a peacemaker and had written at least two very good books on behalf of peace. The coming ware was an agony to her. She was a gentle soul and never said harsh things. In this speech she told a story something like this. I did not hear it. A young man she knew was in deep trouble. He did not believe in war nor its inevitability. He believed that war was murder and he was unwilling to be a criminal. No motive could justify war to him. He knew the world had not advanced far enough to see war from his point of view, but that did not justify war for him. He could not bring himself to serve, 20 yet he had been drafted. He was in an agony of agitation, and became a conscientious objector. The press told the story in its own way, always with the inference that Miss Addams was trying to persuade young men not to enlist and not to serve when drafted. The effect of this simple episode is indescribable Here is another story which happened twenty years later. It was told me two days ago by the man in the case. He was young in 1917. The country was placarded from ocean to ocean with large advertisements. Among them was one I remember well. "If you do not do your duty now, what will your children think of you?" This young man had only imaginary, unborn children, but among all the influences thrown about him to catch his imagination, he remembers this one. Now he has a daughter in college. He is going to make an armistice address in his town and his family is interested in what he will say. One day the daughter surprised him with this: "Father, there is a question I have long wanted to ask you. How do you justify yourself for going into the war?" That is, she thinks she would be a little prouder had her father been a conscientious objector. This is the youth movement, I suppose, - youth moving on to a better world. So opinion changeth. Probably all the threat of war, all the dictatorships, all the suppression of human rights, has kept the [human] men and women thinking on the subject more intently than would have been the case had we had a quiet peace. Perhaps all the woe of the past twenty years has done good service. The books the magazines, the newspapers, the plays the songs and poems the speeches, the round tables the cartoons all point to peace. -13- nation that sends its young men, who [will] if they lived would compose the next generation, out to be shot and then asks a pension for all who did not go, because they can find no jobs and the government is too poor because it is paying for the war. What, then, shall we do about war? I answer: this temporizing with war, playing neutral, talking about taking the profit out of war, is nonsense. War cannot be civilized. It must be torn up, root and branch, and cast out forever from the affairs of men. No other policy is practical or sensible. How shall war be abolished, - this old, universal institution? It can only be abolished by public opinion all the way around the world. Is it possible to change that opinion? It is. I want to tell you two better stories, true ones. -21- "War - out you go." say we of the Committees of One. "You are unfit for human society." "In I stay" says war, "I have always been here. Put me out if you can." Here the issues are joined. No beating around the bush, no discussion of interesting topics to draw off attention, no straddling of fences can be tolerated. The plain issue is"War or no War". The one plank in the platforms of Committees of One is "War must be abolished - Public Opinion can do it." The one such committees ask question is, - which side are you on? Let me repear war and go and peace welcome as surely as the sun wil rise tomorrow but the date depends upon you. Incomplete Speech Used backs for notes used in 88th Birthday Speech Jan 9th 1947. The new speaker of the house, Mr [Modin?] in his opening ad said of the present that debt [now assumed by the nation], that it wd require a century for the Nat 2 pay it. If the U.S. must spend a 100 yrs 2 pay 4 its last war it wd seem that the citizens who must [pay it wd] provide the money wd think long and carefully before they venture to undertake another [such] war. [[handwritten]] -3- [[strikethrough]] 5 [[/strikethrough]] [[/handwritten]] It was the climax of the aspiring hope and prayers of 5,000 years said one. "It was at long last an answer to the highest type of Chrsitianity said another and some pronounced it the greatest event of history. For a shor time hope gave promise of a new and better world. Of the, so called, Big Four who dictated the peace-making, after the war, [[handwritten insert]] said: [[/handwritten insert]] [[strikethrough]] the only one now alive is [[/strikethrough] Lloyd George, [[handwritten insert]] said [[/handwritten insert]] [[strikethrough]] He said, [[/strikethrough]] in this happy period; "Let ours be a generation that manfully, courageously, resolutely, eliminates war from among the tragedies of human life." It was a promising, hopeful, aspiring moment, but Mzars refused to surrender his throne. [[scribbled over]] The dramatic adventure of war lured youth to want more of excitement and it lured age to want a return of its profits. The faith weakened. The dodgers resumed dodging. Hope faded away. [[/scribbled over]] [[end page]] [[new page]] [[handwritten]] The gravest question that has even confronted the human race having high alone the heads of the people of every nation the world over. It is an old old question no person living today can tell us when, where or why war began. Every nation or tribe or group has had to experience such [[??]] and for a million years have cried in vain what should we do about war? 2 Time passed and men learned to take baths, to comb their hair, to live ? ? sleep in beds, sit on chairs. thousands of years passed and they had learned to ? ? and to multiply yet they never stopped fighting and no nation has ever forsworn war. Hundreds of generations passed Men ? money ? to schools & colleges. 2 What shall we do about war 1 When the boys and girls of our generation were old enough to notice things, we saw that the world was cluttered up with things that seemed disorderly and we were told that these were problems and that these must be solved if the Human-race is to survive. Among them lay a huge bundle tattered and blood-stained, musty and rusty with age. It was labelled, What shall we do about war? See Page 19 - Date 1944 - ORM 12/19/62 2 Every Generation, we were told, had fumbled at it and immortal proverbs and slogans had been pronounced upon it, but no master-hand had seized it boldly and with power and persuasion had insisted upon making an end of it. Most of our generation simply turned their backs upon it. They purposely dodged all disagreeable-tasks. 3 So in our generation of dodgers it came about that in the year 1914, after an evaluation of the human-race for a million years, there was no machinery, no authority, in the entire world that could stop or prevent a war; yet in that year there was a machine in every country that could start a war which no one could stop. So came World War I. Historians pronounced the most ruthless and terrible of all time, [at the same time pay for W's that have been & 4 those which threaten to come We must make a choice. When a Nation like our own too can boast that it has a stock - pile of atom bombs besides battle- ships and other war material It is no wonder that in the wds of L. F[?] these are "scared men in the Kremlin" and althoug it has not been mentioned we may well surmise that these R scared men in Wash.] [7]6 - 4 - T[e]he Rabbits forgot the Ferrits and the world fell back into its old ruts. "The present next war/came, quoting Hitler, "according to plan," bigger more ruthless and savage than the last. [So global has been this war, so enormous it spread and intensity that the resources of every country, wood, metal, oil, food and what not have been scraped from the bottom of each nation's barrel to supply the needs of the combat. Millions are now underfed and many starving.] Here In this despairing period of H 9 Mils expressed himself thus: The huge majority of people in the world think no more about the prevention of war than a warren of rabbits think about the suppression of ferrits. [The Speaker of the House, [??], said in his opening speech that the present [?] debt [wd] cd not be paid in less thin a century. One wd suppose that [paying 4] 100 yrs [?} is forgiven. 2 pay 4 one war in a [?] 100 yrs [wd make one man or woman] that every man w & child in the U. wd mse and declare that w. must be abolished, Trans & Stalin and ForU. are crying 4 more money 4 Ed. Hosp. churches, old folks homes and even apts for veterans. There is no money 2 provide these measites and 10[8] Our share cost as much as all the wars of this nation, including the Revolution. The Great War, statisticians of the League of Nations say, cost $20,000 for each hour since the birth of the Prince of Peace. The four actual years of war cost over $9,000,000. per hour. The statisticians amused themselves with further calculations. It would be possible, they said, had we the cost of this war to present every family, [they say], in the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, Great Britian, France, Germany and Russia with a $2,500 house standing on a five-acre plot and containing $12,00 worth of furniture. The [came] one came from is the resolution of the people to abolish it. We shall end [come to] because it is brutal cruel uncivilized a Mtg of hideous and asinine. The determinate to [ ? ] it I am and will provide the means [ ? ]. [its] that purpose. These can b no conformist or vacillation. 11 These people could be divided into towns of 20,000 families and each town could be provided with a Hospital, University and Public-schools including the salaries of Doctors, Nurses, Teachers and Professors. With such showing one would suppose by common consent the entire world would have said - No more war. But, dear friends of the next generation, let us assure you that the majority of the human race were blind, deaf and dumb, war marched on as usual. Several such [breatn] already exist as a result of hard work, earnest endeavor it is B bought 2 [pars] that every nation M. C & S arena wd have taken a vow that it wd not go 2 war with any other country on their 2 Cont. 12 Mussolini fought a hard war against Ethiopia, Hirohito against Manchucho, Bolivia and Paraguay fought a savage war and then came the Spanish Civil War, a battle between democracy and autocracy, in which many countries joined, more or less. These filled the years following World War I and led straight to World War 2. One day these events from 1914 to 1944 will be called the 30-years war of the 20th Centurfy of if the war does not end in '44 it may carry a more shocking title. There is so much more we might do it is not my own idea nor is it the idea of our Nation. The idea came from Brazil. I believe that B & the U.S. together cd. begin where the [flan] left off. Let these 2 nations offer to every country in N.S. & C America a treaty never 2 go to war with each other and 2 refer all dispute or difficulty between any 2 nation 2 arbitration and go 2 war only if any N. refuses to go to Arb. or abide by the results of Arb. 13. This is a war with a Cause and an aim although most wars have neither. The liberty and rights of man under the title of democracy has been slowly climbing up for the past 700 years and has been stubbornly resisted every step of the way and nowhere more stubbornly than in Germany, led by Prussia. In 1847 Kiaser Frederick William said "I will never yield to the rule of majorities and will resist to the last extremity the numerous democratic designs which are the (all scribbled out) Anyone in town, I was not 2 be and I asked what is it U do 2 bring P. to the world. She replied in a very gentle tone. wherever I go and with whomever I speak, i give W a black eye. You may think that that is very method and I do not think the L. of U was a failure. It gave 2 the W. a clearer account of the cost of war than was ever mad B4. War will not say the V.Y has been a failure until we have done our best 2 make it a success but if we have a 3rd WW it will be because we have not really tried 2 abolish War. 14 disgrace and peril of the age." Bismarck came later and said "Great questiosn of the day are not settled by speeches and majority-votes - but by blood and iron." After three wars, of his own encitement, he crowned an Emperor of a unified Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. Then came Emperor William who wrote and published this. "I have been influenced by five men Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Theodoric Second, Frederick the Great and Napolean. Each of these men dreamed a dream Let us make it clear that [forf] 4 W. by every nation means a certainty of wars 2 come. Discernment and the abolition of W shd B our social aim boldly spoken and advoated by all Friends of [Peon], This may be dif. 2 do 4 these R still Williams who like war and want it 2 come again. I was once for at am often T when the sub. discussed was peace. A very small and gentle woman was pointed out 2 me as a woman who did more good 4 peace than 15 Of World Empire they failed. I dreamed a dream of German World Empire and my mailed-fist shall succeed. Then came the paper-hanger. Democracy is not a complete thing. It is an institution growing, expanding, climbing. It promises education, opportunity, liberty and the right for each to live his own life in his own good way. Perfect democracy is coming. how, when and in what form no one knows. Autocracy, the right of a few willfull men to rule over the masses and 25 Make Longfellow's message to all nations your daily prayer. Were half the power that fills the world with terror Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenal or forts. Longfellow 16 give orders which they must obey is perhaps fighting its last battle. It is a duel between the old and the new; the going and the coming. These two forces have now met in a head-on-collision. This is no ordinary war. It is a struggle for decision between two codes of behavior. Shall men be free to march onward in accord with the universal law of evolution or shall the opposition compel an armistice for a few hundred years wherein much gained shall be lost 17 and the world stand still? Men and women of 1944, upon your shoulders rests this ancient problem. There will surely be a third World-war unless something more bold, resolute and convincing is done than anything now under discussion. The really inteligent, moral citizen will not be content with the task of preventing a Third-war, of having "peace in our time". He or she will want to find a way to prevent all wars for all time. That is the great problem. and the task for you 18 it can be achieved and it will be, but do not forget that every war checks progress and often sets ib back hundreds of years. It kills, it robs, it cheats, it destroys homes and leaves in every generation a host of orphans, of crippled, and distressed. War is uncivilized, savage, and destructive and the most menacing enemy of progress the world has known. No good ever came out of it, but countless ills have been created by it. It has over-stayed its time. 19 Citizen of 1944 arise, unite, find a pattern for the way out of war! Your young men are giving their lives for victory, but that will not stop war. It will help enormously if they win. It should not be too much to ask of the women of this day to do their utmost to prevent young men of the next generation from repeating this tragedy. Thus the message from my generation ends. Since I dared to bring you a message from the Departed I shall be bold enough to tell you 10 things you might do if you are willing to accept 20 The challenge of the Message. The only reason that the human race is held in so tight a grip by War is that many people want war. (1) - Take all your spare time for a while to ascertain what effect upon your own life the wars during your lifetime have had. Or if you are too young, include your father's and mother's lifetime. you will be amazed at what you find. (2) - Take up the study of the opposition or resistance to the abolition of war. What is it, where is it and why is it? Be sure of your facts (3). When satisfied that you understand the opposition, 21 study well the normal, natural antidote to it. (4) - Try to express, in slogan form, anti-war philosophy that will not be misinterpreted. (5) - Study well what kind of International organization will restrain the war-makers, strengthen the faith of the peace-makers and educate the world at large to see the blessings of peace. The first proposal of such a body was made in 1300 and many have followed along the years. The Covenant of the League of Nations was woven from twelve plans submitted. This time there may be hundreds. 22 (6) - When you have learned well all these lessons, hold a school and Teach what you have learned to others. (7) - Appoint the brightest of your pupils to organize a school of their own and let their pupils organize other schools. This is something like the pattern of the early church 1000 years ago. (8) - In every speech, article or conversation, if the subject of war enters in it, make it clear that your aim is the complete abolition of war. (9) - Co-operate closely with your fellow-workers. Try to find a common understanding and pull together. Wars have been lost because of non-cooperation. Union will 23 be the secret of success. (10) Lastly, there is some talk of women on the Peace Commission. I think such appointments may be made, but I entreat you, do not support the appointment of any woman simply because she is a woman. Support her only if she is thoroughly informed of the history of war, the policies of many countries and has a complete understanding. Are there any such? Yes a few. The most surprising result of greater freedom for women has been the woman war-correspondents. They have had a chance to show comprehension and judgement, two wonderful illustrations of the new woman will speak to you at dinner tonight. 24 Were these two women members of the Peace Commission, I for one would have great confidence in the outcome. If all the organizations could unite their support of the same demand for the coming World Order and if continuous education could precede and follow the World Organization every advocate of war would soon dissapear. 25 Make Longfellow's "Message To All Nations," Your daily prayer. "were half the power that fills the world with terror were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts. Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenal or forts. Longfellow. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.